One of the many things that is so challenging about grief and loss is that they can give you tunnel vision, causing you to think everything in your life is terrible. Of course, I know this isn’t true. Just a simple look around the dinner table at night reminds me how lucky I am. But, like I said: tunnel vision.
In this season I am trying to be extra intentional about looking for the good. If I’ve learned anything in the past 6 months, it’s that there is surely goodness to be found even while walking through grief. Here are 20 things, big and small, I’m feeling grateful for these days:
1. A visit to Dewberry Farms
2. The boys running around waving their palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna!”
3. Reading The Beauty of Motherhood, written by my friends Erin Strybis and Kim Knowle-Zeller
4. Double chocolate muffins from Village Juice
5. Morning light and puppet shows
6. Current library books: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
7. Taking the boys to lunch at McDonald’s, which they adorably call “Old McDonald’s”
8. Sweet friends bringing over dinner, flowers, and treats
9. A morning at Dog-Eared Coffee (which has an awesome play area for kids)
10. Listening to The Lumineers, Vance Joy, and Maverick City Music
11. First cookout of the season! Josh’s parents came over and we grilled the most delicious cedar plank salmon. CJ also ate half his body weight in watermelon 😉
12. Good news from the cardiologist!
13. Snuggling and reading with the boys before bed. Their current book obsession is Go, Dog. Go!
14. Manzanilla olives
15. Argan oil hair masks
16. Working on our tiny house (below is the before and after!)
17. Playing outside almost every night after dinner
18. Getting to see my BFF this weekend
19. Sunny afternoons at the park
20. Bright pink azaleas in bloom
A Continual Feast 